Philippines Petron Corp. posted double income

May 13/2011

(Malaya Business Insight) -- Petron
Corp.(Philippines), the country’s largest oil refiner and retailer, yesterday
said income for the first three months almost doubled from the same period last
year due to stronger revenue from its petrochemical business. Petron said its
first-quarter income stood at P3.4 billion, up 88.88 percent from P1.9
billion.

The company said export sales rose about 60 percent to 1.38 million
barrels in the first quarter compared with only 867,000 barrels in the same
period last year.

Petrochemical export volumes increased 32 percent to 774,000 barrels.

Petron said the spike in crude prices pushed up the prices of
petrochemical products such benzene, toluene, and xylene, while supply tightness
in propylene enabled the company to capture incremental margins from its
production streams.